Chapter 28 Bailey
BAILEY
The dreaded day was here, and there was no stopping it.
If I could have found a way to avoid spending the entire day with my family, I would have, but it turns out that simply refusing to show up does not work in all scenarios.
I sat in my momma’s driveway, trying to work up the courage to go inside and face the disappointment. I knew this day wouldn’t be easy, but actually going through with it was more difficult than I thought.
“Just do it,” I grumbled, grabbing my cup of coffee that I picked up on the way from The Daily Grind.
That alone was a great feat, considering I was just two shops away from the General Store and across the street, and a few shops down from the boutique where my now-arch nemesis worked.
But I managed to pull it off in the name of coffee and survival. A day like today was not for the faint of heart, and I was going to need all the backup I could get.
Shoving my door open, I decided to get it over with. Sitting in the car would only delay the inevitable.
Before I could even reach the front steps, Billie was rushing out of the house, wrapping her arms around me in the biggest hug I’d ever gotten from her.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispered. Stepping back, she looked me over. “Now, once you get inside, be sure to look as sad and pathetic as possible so Momma will stop asking me questions about my future.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, tipping my coffee cup in her direction.
“Seriously, though. Are you okay?”
I knew that question would be asked a million times before the town finally moved on. I was going to have to get used to it. “I think I’ll survive,” I grinned.
That was the key to it all, really. Play it off like it was just another breakup. Liam was nothing to me, and my little heart would recover in no time.
Honestly, there was no other way around it. If I was sad and pathetic, the whole town would continue to give me sympathetic looks. But if I held my head high and pretended everything was fine, they would all move on, gossiping about me behind my back instead of to my face.
It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it was better than the pitying looks I was bound to receive.
“So, Momma is on a war path, just so you know. I feel I should warn you before we get in there that she’s already cancelled the caterer and the flowers since the end of your engagement—”
“There was never any engagement.”
“And she’s also weaseled her way out of your dress fitting. She was going to have you wear her wedding dress.”
She pulled a disgusted face before pretending to throw up.
“Consider yourself lucky that Liam broke things off with you. That dress is so out of fashion.”
“Yes, getting one’s heart broken is a small price to pay for getting out of wearing a hideous wedding gown,” I retorted.
“Right? Also, if you could mention that you’re really sad and need her comfort, that would be great. I have plans in town today, and I really can’t afford to be late for anything.”
I stopped at the steps, glaring at my baby sister. “I thought the whole point of me coming over was so we could spend time together.”
“Right, well, I may have led all of you to believe that, but I actually have a date,” she winced. “I’m really sorry to do this to you, but it can’t be helped.”
My sister always had been a little selfish. And why shouldn’t she get out of the house and enjoy her day? She was living with Momma for the foreseeable future, and God only knows, she was going to be tortured until she moved out.
“Alright. Who’s this date with?”
She brightened immediately. “Remember Clay?”
My blood chilled instantly. “Clay Callahan?”
Nodding excitedly, her face betrayed every emotion flitting through her mind. “I always thought he was handsome, but when I ran into him in town yesterday, I couldn’t believe he actually wanted to see me.”
“Billie—”
“I know he’s not all there anymore, but he was so sweet when he asked me out. I just couldn’t say no.”
The thought of her going anywhere near the Callahan family made my gut twist with unease. Wyatt was okay, but Clay? He was always around Austin. I wasn’t even sure he could be considered a functioning adult, which meant Austin was most likely behind him asking her out.
“Billie, I don’t like the idea of you meeting Clay.”
“Why not?” Her good mood instantly vanished. “Because he’s not Liam? Is he not good enough for me?”
“No, but his brother—”
“You work for Wyatt, Bailey. How could you be so judgmental?”
“Listen,” I snapped, getting her attention. “You don’t know this because you’ve been gone for the past four years, but the family has only gotten meaner as time goes on. Clay doesn’t even function like an adult, which means Austin is most likely behind him asking you to meet him.”
But my sister was never one to listen to reason. In fact, if I told her the sky was blue, she would argue with me just because she could.
“Right. He couldn’t possibly be interested in me for me. It has to be that someone else is putting him up to it.”
“Yeah, it does when Clay has the mental capacity of a ten-year-old,” I argued. “I’m telling you, something isn’t right here.”
“You know, it’s just like you to try and ruin this for me. Just like you did when Colt liked me. He wasn’t good enough for me either, but now he has his own butcher shop.”
“Colt is ten years older than you, and when you wanted to date him, you were a senior in high school.”
Scoffing, she stomped up the stairs. “He would have been perfect for me.”
“Well, you have your chance now. Go ask him out. You’re an adult and perfectly capable of asking any man out!”
She stiffened at my words. “He’s already seeing someone.”
I rolled my eyes as she stomped into the house. My little sister had the uncanny ability to convince herself that anyone she had a crush on also had a crush on her. Colt had never been interested in her, and when Brody told him about Billie’s crush, the man laughed and assumed he was joking.
But there was no point in arguing any further about any of this. If Billie wanted to see Clay, she was going to find a way to go.
“Momma?” I called out as I walked through the front door.
As expected, she scurried out of the kitchen, her whole demeanor different from the last time I saw her.
She no longer wore her hair up to test a new style.
She wore her pajamas she only put on when she was depressed, and the house smelled of chicken noodle soup—something she only made when she was sick or if someone was sad—i.e. , me.
But I didn’t give her the sad version of Bailey she expected.
“Hey, Momma!”
“Oh, my baby,” she whispered, her lip trembling as she hurried over to me and wrapped me in a warm hug that only she could give.
It took everything in me not to fall apart like I wanted to. After all, I was strong, and I would not let a man tear me to pieces.
But as she held me in her arms, all I wanted to do was break. I hadn’t expected that. I thought I would come over here and the very sight of her sad face would put me into fight mode.
How wrong I was.
“Oh, this looks like a mother/daughter moment,” Billie frowned. “I think I should slip out and give you two some space to talk.”
I would have glared at my sister, but the longer Momma held me, the more I knew I needed this.
“What about Brody?” I asked.
“Oh, he’s still at work.” My sister hurried over to me and patted my arm gently. “We all feel so terrible about everything that happened. Liam is such a douchebag, and you let us know if you need us to kick his ass. I totally will.”
She shot me an exaggerated wink before flying out the door for her date.
“Your sister is nothing if not subtle,” Momma chuckled.
“She’s doing it on purpose, you know.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of her tricks by now. Anyway, how are you holding up? You must be devastated.”
“I’m fine, Momma.”
I really did want to be strong, but the woman who flitted around the house, excited for my impending marriage, was nowhere to be found. Instead, the sympathetic woman who only showed her face when we really needed it was all that appeared.
“Now, you can pull the wool over your brother’s eyes, but I’m a woman, and I know a thing or two about heartbreak,” she said, leading me over to the couch.
“I’m really fine,” I said, trying again, but I could tell I failed miserably at convincing her that I was.
“Darling, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that love cannot just be pushed down until you feel nothing at all. Oh, I know I was so excited for the wedding, and I probably took it too far, but I was so sure about Liam.”
“So was I,” I admitted. “I really thought…” Shaking my head, I didn’t even know where to start. “It all changed overnight, and I can’t figure out what I did wrong.”
I wouldn’t dare tell Mama that Liam said anything about her planning the wedding. One of two things would happen. She would either feel horrible for her supposed role in my breakup, or she would march over to his house and call him a coward for backing out just because an old woman got excited.
Neither of those was appealing.
“Honey, you did nothing wrong. If anything, you have too big a heart.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
“You always have,” she beamed. “It’s your best trait. You’re always so willing to see the best in others that you can’t see the flaws.”
“So…you think there’s something wrong with Liam?” I asked in confusion.
“I think that the truth will come out eventually. You’ll just have to decide if you’re ready to hear it.”
Yeah, that was never going to happen. “He slept with Ellie May, Momma. There’s no coming back from that.”
“Well, men will do stupid things all the time—”
“No,” I said fiercely. “When I saw her in his shirt…”
The hurt and anger came swirling to the surface so fast that I felt I might punch someone. Tears pricked my eyes as I remembered the way he stared at me as if he didn’t care at all that I was devastated.
“He slept with her, and he didn’t even care that it hurt me,” I whispered. “How does someone do that to another person? How could he claim to care about me and then turn around and…”
The tears I’d been desperately holding back for days finally spilled down my cheeks. I could no longer fight the feelings rushing to the surface or pretend that I wasn’t devastated.
“When I was with him, I thought for sure that he felt the same as me, you know?”
She squeezed my hand, which only made it harder to keep it together.
“It was only a week,” I laughed, wiping away the tears. “But that week…God, it was amazing.”
“I know,” she smiled, and something about that look told me she really did understand.
“You do?”
“Not many people know this, but before your father, I fell in love with a man that I could never be with.”
“Why?”
She shrugged lightly. “He was already married. They weren’t exactly happy, but he never would have left her. I see that now.”
“Who was he?”
“That’s for me to know. A woman has to have her secrets.”
“But…what happened? Did he know you were in love with him?”
As if she was transported to another world, my mother smiled unlike anything I had seen. She beamed as if she was the happiest person.
“He was handsome and charming. And honestly, I hadn’t noticed him until this one night at a drive-in movie.
I was with some friends and he was in the car beside me.
I’ll never forget the way he looked at me when our eyes met during the film.
It was as if we were stuck in some bubble where no one else could see us. ”
“Momma!” I gasped, surprised by the way she was fawning over this man.
“After the movie, my friends decided to go to the diner—”
“Here?” I asked. “This happened in town? Then I know him.”
“We went to the diner, and he was there with his wife. They were arguing about something, and then she stormed out. I felt so sorry for him as he sat there all alone, so very unhappy. I could never imagine being that miserable with someone I was married to.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“Not that night. It was really like fate was bringing us together. We kept bumping into each other around town, and one day we started talking. He was the most fascinating man I’d ever met. I never did understand how his wife could be so angry with him all the time.
“But then, after years of marriage, I started to realize that not everyone is well-suited for each other.”
“Were you and Daddy?” I asked, hoping the answer was yes.
“Oh, very much so. Your daddy could make me laugh unlike anyone I’d ever met.”
“But what about this man? What happened?”
“After a few stolen kisses, he told me he was in love with me. I was in heaven. I thought for sure he was going to leave his wife and we would live happily ever after.”
“Obviously, that didn’t happen.”
“No,” she smiled sadly. “His wife was pregnant, and no matter how much he wanted to be with me, he wouldn’t leave her.”
The look on her face actually made me sad. I wasn’t sure why. She was the other woman. She would have broken up a marriage, and for what? Love? Was that really enough? I wasn’t sure, but then again, I’d never been in love with someone who wasn’t available.
“Are you ever going to tell me who he was?”
“Some secrets are meant to be left alone. He’s my secret.”
Leaning against my mother’s shoulder, I took her comfort, knowing I wasn’t alone in my misery. She had lost two great loves, and now she was all alone. If she could push past the pain, I could do the same.
I would not fall to pieces over a man. Not now, not ever.